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Rangers eye sweep of Braves in Atlanta

Jun 19, 2011 - 2:54 PM (Sports Network) - The Texas Rangers are aiming for a three-game road sweep of the Atlanta Braves in interleague action Sunday afternoon.

Alexi Ogando, 27, has been tremendous for Texas this season, posting a 7-1 record with a 2.71 ERA. Unfortunately, his lone defeat did come at the hands of the Yankees on Tuesday, as the righty lasted just 1 2/3 innings while yielding six earned runs. That poor showing marked the first time he failed to pitch at least six innings in a start this season.

Ogando has never faced Atlanta in his career.

Set to oppose Ogando is Jair Jurrjens, who is 8-3 overall with a 2.13 ERA. He has permitted just four home runs in 84 1/3 innings of action. The righty is coming off a loss to the Mets on Tuesday, however, as he permitted four earned runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings of work.

Jurrjens won his only previous career start against Texas in 2007, yielding just one run in five innings of work.

The Rangers continue to lead the AL West, while Atlanta trails only Philadelphia in the NL East.

Yesterday, Adrian Beltre drove in the winning run in the top of the 10th inning to give the Rangers a 5-4 win over the Braves in a contest interrupted by a two-hour, 16-minute rain delay.

Ian Kinsler doubled off of Scott Proctor (1-1) to start off the 10th. After Elvis Andrus grounded out, Josh Hamilton was intentionally walked to set the table for Beltre, who laced the ball into center to plate Kinsler.

Hamilton was 0-for-4 to snap his interleague game hitting streak at 24 games.

Neftali Feliz came in to throw a perfect bottom half to close out the game for Texas.

The Braves fought back after a lengthy rain delay, but could not pull off the win to get their fifth loss in six games.

When the game resumed with two outs in the fifth, Rangers starting pitcher Matt Harrison returned after sitting for two-plus hours with a 4-2 lead. He took just three pitches to induce a Jordan Schafer flyout to end the inning.

"I took a lot pride in that," Harrison said of returning after the rain delay and finished giving up three runs (one earned) on three hits over 6 1/3 innings. "I stayed lose. I played catch every 20 minutes. If I had felt any tightness at all I would have not gone into the game. I wasn't going to push it just for one start and end up on the DL because I tried to push it too hard. I was able to stay loose and go out there and throw a couple more innings."

Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones (right adductor strain) did not play in his second straight game, and his status for today's tilt is uncertain.

Texas has won six of its last eight interleague clashes with Atlanta, including last night's tilt. The Rangers lost all three meetings to the Braves in their last visit to Turner Field, which occurred from June 3-5, 2003.